Schuette aims to kill health insurance subsidies in Michigan

February 21, 2014 - Jim Anderson

What do you call a state official who files a lawsuit to deny residents federal tax credits for health care?

If you hate Obamacare to its core, maybe you call him a hero.

If you’re more reasonable about health care reform, maybe you call him a destructive radical.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has joined a lawsuit that appears aimed at gutting Obamacare. Among other things, it claims that residents of Michigan — which has a federal health exchange as opposed to a state one — are ineligible for subsidized insurance.

His argument hinges on a technicality in the law, which bases the credits on the prices of plans available “through an Exchange established by the State.”

Michigan is among 34 states that have decided against state exchanges and deferred to the federal government.

So far, the Lansing State Journal reports, federal data shows that 86 percent of Michiganders purchasing policies on the healthcare.gov exchange are eligible for tax credits to help cover the cost.

With friends in office like Schuette, those folks must be saying ... who needs a two-by-four to the head in place of a doctor?